Creative Massive Growth : Part 1 - Replicate

This is Part One of a three part series on business growth strategy: “Replicate, Innovate and Dominate.”

This is absolutely full of ideas on how to create growth in your business, no matter what your business is. So get a pen and paper and get ready to get some strategies mapped out to GROW!

When I started my first million dollar dollar business, long before we hit a million dollars, when it was all new, and I had no idea how to get more clients, where to find them, or even which ones I should be looking for, I took part in a group mentoring program as a mentee.

One of the things that I was told there was absolutely key to transforming my business and taking me from 100k to 1 million, within the next three years.

My business was promotional products, so it was business to business, and I had no contacts  at all.  I was starting from zero, but I had managed to find about 20 clients at that point, and a couple were larger companies.  

I was spray marketing in the worst way - knocking on the doors at every type of business in town because I had no idea which ones would even make a good customer.  

I was burnt out from trying to be all things to all people, and spinning my wheels without getting any real traction. So my mentor asked me who my best customer was.  

That was easy,  I had been really fortunate to land a ski resort client (it was really luck – I caught the right person on the phone at the right moment) but I had grabbed on with both hands, and at that point they accounted for $50,000 of my $100,000 business.  

She said “ Then there’s your answer.  Don’t keep trying to reinvent yourself for every different kind of business.  

Get out there and replicate that client. Find every single ski resort within traveling distance, and knock on their door. Become the ski resort promo expert.  

When you run out of ski resorts, go and find every travel destination type company and start approaching them.  Replicate your success with more of the same.”

Within three years I was working with 5 ski resorts, a theme park, three cruise lines, and a number of spas, wineries etc.  That was my sweet spot.  It’s an industry I love and know, and I have become an expert in what they need.  

I replicated my success and it was SO much easier than reinventing the wheel on every single sales call.

So that’s what I am talking about today – that’s what I want you to look at in your business. Replicate for success – simply “do more of what’s working”

There is more than one way to replicate in your business – I focused on replicating my clients, but you can also replicate in other ways.

• Replicate your promotions 
• What promos did you do that were really successful – can you tweak and repeat?  
• Can you analyze and figure out why they were successful and then create a new one but with the same elements that made it successful?

• Replicate your products 
• Do you have a product or service that does really well?  Why?  
• Can you do more of that service with slight variations?

• Replicate your processes 
• Do you have processes that are really efficient or useful?  Or that really generate sales?  
• Where else could you use that or something similar for similar outcomes?

You can replicate your customers like I did, by going out and finding more of the same, or you can replicate your customers by implementing a referral program.  

With a referral program, you are getting customers that love you to send you more people that are probably just like them, and will love you too.

I want you to take an hour this week and mentally walk through your business to find the most successful parts of it and then figure out how to replicate those areas.

A simple way to use replication is with your social media.  Look at your analytics – what posts had great response?  How do you give them more of that?  

You can reuse that exact post if it's more than a couple of months old – just mention it’s a throwback or a “remember when” or change the graphic slightly to freshen it up and reuse the caption.  

It’s a great idea to keep a “best of” folder.  Brendan Buchard talks about this all the time. He keeps the social posts, videos, and blog posts that are the most popular in a “best of” folder and pulls from that all the time.  If it worked once, it will likely work again, and you can use content on different platforms the next time to get it in front of a new part of your audience.  That’s one great example of replication.

New is great and we’ll talk about innovation in the next session, but even though you want to always be testing new things, if you want to find MORE and FASTER anything, then creating your own success formula from past successes is the key. 

Do more of what’s working or has worked.

Imagine if you took the most successful piece of each part of your business and reused it – how would that amplify your growth?  Both your sales growth and your audience growth?

You can do that – and that’s exactly what I challenge you to do this week. 

I want you to take a minute right now and think of something in your business you had great success with that you’d like to replicate?  

Have you got a star client you wish you had ten of?  Or a promotion that absolutely killed it?

And then come back for  Part 2 of this blog series - Business Growth Strategy 101 – and we’ll be talking about how to Innovate for growth.  Sometimes the key to BIG growth is a new perspective, and we are going to talk about how you find that perspective and inspiration, and how to apply it for growth!

I also have a FREE workbook for you that will help you lay out your marketing plan as well - you can download it here: 10 Simple Steps Marketing Planner

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